Lime Crêpe Cake (with White Chocolate Pastry Cream) GF

Ah, Kristen! As if I didn’t have enough sugar being thrown around my kitchen already… Despite the busy-ness of the season, it is fun to participate in the Challenge! Lime & White Chocolate are quite the festive combo – anyway.After a recipe for crêpe cake caught my eye, I decided to make one that was gluten free. And lime. With some creamy white chocolateness slathered between the layers.
I wanted to try a new process for pastry cream that I’d been reading about. (I figured if it “lumped” too much, I could always blend it smooth with my Cuisinart® Smart Stick, right?)
I mixed all the pastry cream ingredients {{gasp}} except for the butter & chocolate pieces into the saucepan. I whisked until all was smooth; then heated & whisked until the mixture thickened. Removing from the heat, I stirred in the butter & chocolate. Total delicious smoothness! Not a lump to be sieved out before cooling!I had to make a special trip all the way outdoors to our Mexican Lime in the back yard. I had worried that our little freeze last week might have damaged some of the year-round fruit and/or blossoms. But everything appeared to be well.I blended all the crêpe ingredients and then let the mixture set in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. In the meantime I had my tallest son retrieve my vintage M’sieur Crêpe (first revealed here) from the upper cabinet.I set up my work station and got busy! Had a bit of trouble with the pan releasing the crêpes without cracking. Nevertheless, I stacked them on a plate with about two tablespoons of the white chocolate cream between. It was then that I found (in the cooled pastry cream) that I hadn’t either a) chopped the chocolate fine enough, or b) thoroughly whisked the chocolate enough before cream cooled. (I have a feeling the answer is c) both of the above!) Ah well – it tasted lovely!As I placed the final crêpe atop the stack, I decided to make a ganache to finish it all off. Here I ran into two problems: 1) I had no more white chocolate, and 2) I wished to impart a little lime flavor to the topping. How I solved my problems also became a bit of a problem: I 1) decided to use white chips instead of chocolate, & 2) decided to use lime juice to try to cut said chips awful sweetness.I also elected not to go to the bother of retrieving my double-boiler from the bottom of the back of the corner cupboard. I gently heated the half & half in a saucepan over a low burner. The chips blended tolerably, but certainly tried to seize as I mixed in the fresh lime juice.Here is the recipe:
What matters to my guys, ultimately, is how does it taste?They really could care less how beautiful, or otherwise, a dessert looks.Check out the links below for some more lime & white chocolate recipes: